Daniil Kvyat: “I was able to Learn the Track Quite Well”

The Scuderia Toro Rosso team had a promising Friday in Monaco as Daniil Kvyat turned his first ever laps around the circuit, and indeed any street track. He finished 18th in free practice one, and followed that by setting the 12th best time in the second session.

“I enjoyed driving here in Monaco finally and it was a good day overall, in which I was able to learn the track quite well,” said Kvyat. “Those were my instructions from the team, who told me to go out and do as many laps as possible. Of course, the rain that made the track wet for some of FP2 did not help so much, but at least I have tried the circuit in both dry and wet now.

“The results are obviously not very representative because of the tricky conditions this afternoon. We will now look at all the data between tonight and tomorrow to get the best out for Saturday’s Qualifying and Sunday’s race.”

Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne admits he loves to race at Monaco, and was fifteenth in the first session but fourth in the mixed conditions of free practice two.

“It was a satisfying Friday and I have a good feeling with the car,” said Vergne. “I like this track and even if I don’t think I’ll be P4 in Qualifying, I’m still happy with what we achieved today. This has been a proper way to build up confidence and it gives us an additional boost to fight for Q3 and points.

“We’ll keep on working hard to get ready for the rest of the weekend. This is a track where the driver can make the difference so I’m determined to remain always 100% concentrated and give it my best.”

Toro Rosso Chief Race Engineer Phil Charles said the team were able to work through their programmes on both cars despite the tricky conditions and a lack of initial grip on track.

“Today went well and we were able to work through our programme on both cars, even though we had to deal with some tricky conditions in the wet in FP2,” said Charles. “In fact, even in FP1 there was not much grip because of the cool temperatures and the fact that part of the track has been resurfaced.

Both drivers did a run on the Inters, before waiting for the track to dry, when JEV did a lap on the Prime tyre to check out the conditions. With Daniil we followed a slightly different programme, waiting to use the Option tyre, which was probably the right decision with him to give him a feel for the car on the softer tyre. In fact, his whole programme today was aimed at giving him as many laps as possible on his first visit here. Overall, we are quite happy with how the day went.”